Javier Solana was EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary-General of NATO, and Foreign Minister of Spain. He is currently President of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Europe.

What an astute bit of writing by Mr Solana. The issues of the Mideast that are escalating in Syria need to be resolved within and by the Middle eastern powers/nations. The US has absolutely no ground to use any interpretation of "moral authority" to intervene. The US has already been exposed during the last 20 years, especially during the Bush administration, that the excuse of moral authority as a principled reason for intervention is without any justification as "principled".

ME instability will inevitably endure as long as POTUS is a prisoner of NSA and its spying on allies and their political motives - as exposed by its own private contractor Snowden- including Israel.

Central to US strategic thinking is the state of Israel and its enduring and political survival in Arab geographical environment.

The Congressional debate on any missile action against Damascus will inevitably conjure up political and strategic imperatives of Israeli defense - thereby securing adequate pro-Israel votes on the motion to authorize POTUS to use military action.

Yesterday both Merkel(CDU) and Steinbruck(SPD) said, *NO*, to any military action against Syria.

There is a growing strategic and political division between US and its most reliable allies.

What an astute bit of writing by Mr Solana. The issues of the Mideast that are escalating in Syria need to be resolved within and by the Middle eastern powers/nations. The US has absolutely no ground to use any interpretation of "moral authority" to intervene. The US has already been exposed during the last 20 years, especially during the Bush administration, that the excuse of moral authority as a principled reason for intervention is without any justification as "principled". The US can no longer play supreme cop because the US has been publicly exposed as having no morals or principles as basic motivation for military action. The situation in Syria, unfortunately, is a battlefield that needs to be resolved by the Middle Eastern players. No one in Syria is crying out for help from the US, and maybe not even the UN. Syria's basic scenario of extreme domestic violence needs to be solved by the actors within the Middle Eastern states and nations, especially Syria's own political leadership and citizens. The US would only side-step from co-dependent into the role of a co-conspirator, as viewed by so many different political factions within Syria and her neighbors. Perhaps, one of the significant paradoxes of all is the fact that the US needs to recognize basic political, religious, and geographical boundaries of its traditional allies within the Middle East and worldwide. A display of power and will by the US is meaningless at this time, because everyone knows there is a significant difference between "will" and "good-will". Who would view the US intervention as an act of goodwill? Who, as citizens, in the US even view US intervention as an act of goodwill? An international effort led by the US to use the international legal system, courts and decisions based on definitions of justice, and international codes of right and wrong, would do more good to establish credibility of action as a reasonable display of intervention. A contest between bullies only leaves a battlefield of destruction. Some one needs to take action on a higher ground. It would be most commendable if some political leaders of nations within the Middle East would establish procedures for international legal action against responsible political leadership in Syria. Otherwise, fundamental conflicts of Middle-Eastern and Western thought, and interests will never be resolved. Certain lines drawn in the sand will still never be crossed by either side even into the future.

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